Cry of the week: ‘This Is Us’ takes us to fat camp

Welcome to our new weekly series “Cry of the Week,” in which we highlight whatever moment made us ugly cry on our couches the most in the past seven days.

This Is Us has never been afraid to take us viewers on an emotional rollercoaster. In fact, I’m convinced that Dan Fogelman and the NBC shows writers relish in our tears at this point.

If that wasn’t clear before, it certainly became obvious after this week’s episode, in which we watched Kate (Chrissy Metz) go through a breakdown at fat camp while remembering emotional barriers in her life that prevented her from achieving various life goals.

One of those traumatizing moments? Her dad Jacks (Milo Ventimiglia) funeral.

The moment:

Kate’s emotional journey has always been part of the series, but when we see her let herself go at the weight loss camp one of the most compelling moments in her storyline thus far it is powerful enough to move us to tears in just two minutes.

As Kate partakes in an emotionally charged workout at camp, her mind wanders down memory lane. In the first flashback, we see her sitting at a pool, reading a note from her friends saying “We don’t want you to play with us anymore. You embarrass us.”

Are your heartstrings getting pulled? It gets worse.

The show then cuts to a flashback of Kate’s 10th birthday party, where we see her goofing around with her dad, Jack. The two are so adorable, and Kate is so happy.

But suddenly, the flashback jumps to Jack’s other children in their teen years. They’re wearing black and holding hands at Jack’s funeral. Jack, the heart-of-gold patriarch of the family. The loving partner to Rebecca and father of triplets. Jack, who goes from being an emotionally unavailable drunk to the “perfect guy” (as our reviewer Diane Gordon described him).

Sadly, we won’t find out how Jack died for quite some time.

Theres a before and after tothis family, Fogelman told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour earlier this month. Before Jack, and after. Theres a hinge in this family, and that will be really interesting to showwhere that hinge was.

We won’t find out until “much later” how the family lost Jack, and it will be an even longer time until viewers see the moment of Jack’s death.

If you lack patience and are in deeply in need of an outlet for feeling more feels there’s a whole Reddit thread dedicated to theories around how Jack might have died. Warning: More tears will definitely be forthcoming.